Airbus Announces Production Updates

It’s a busy period in the industry as companies report quarterly performance. Airbus has announced its half-year figures for 2024 thus far.

One of the greater takeaways was updates to key aircraft programmes after a difficult start to the decade. The manufacturer reports a challenging operating environment but a situation it believes it can stabilise in the future.

The A220 ramp-up is continuing, and Airbus remains on track to produce 14 aircraft per year by 2026 to offer customers greater availability.

Production increases on the A220 will be important for customers who seek the aircraft. Having finalised agreements with Quebec, Airbus will look to rectify the loss-making programme.

Airbus has been forced to adjust its overall ramp-up trajectory on several occasions for the ever-popular A320 family, which includes aircraft such as the upcoming A321XLR.

As of June 2024, Airbus is targeting a monthly production rate of 75 A320 family planes, which will be achieved sometime in 2027. This is under current estimations; however, the planemaker says it’s aware of the ever-evolving situation and many complexities that come from its supply chains, and as a result, this is subject to change.

On the front of new aircraft, Airbus expects the A321XLR, after receiving its type certification from the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA), to enter service with Iberia at the end of the summer 2024 season.

For the widebody portfolio, Airbus says it’s still targeting a monthly production rate for its A330 series of 4 units to be reached this calendar year.

The A330 family, specifically the new engine option, the A330neo, attracted significant interest at the most recent 2024 Farnborough Airshow and has thus successfully added to its backlog.

The largest aircraft in the portfolio, the A350, is on course for a monthly production rate of 12 units by 2028. Furthermore, the aircraft manufacturer is progressing with work on the upcoming A350 Freighter and also for consideration of the A350-1000ULR as it is being dubbed, which will be delivered to Qantas for Project Sunrise missions in the coming years.

Airbus struggled in the first half of the year, but there were highlights such as deliveries of 323 commercial aircraft across its families, primarily led by the successful A320 programme.

The commercial aircraft division also increased revenues by 4% with greater activities year over year, however, the planemaker says this follows ultimately larger deliveries.

Despite these strong deliveries, supply chain problems continue to be a persistent issue for the planemaker. As a result, in the last few months, it has been forced to adjust its expectations over a delivery target. The revised expectation is 770 units, down from the previous target of 800.